partsofspeaking

Although I don't want to confuse the Christian faith with some kind of therapeutic nicety, one cannot read the Bible and come away without a sense that healing is central to the work of Christ. Now, different people will interpret that according to experience and theological training. Teaching about healing is tricky business, because there are no definite promises about healing in the Bible and lots of indications that faith doesn't solve all sickness, not in the least. I say this because our pastor recently gave a testimony of healing after prayer and annointing, which is of course the biblical mandate. But what about those who don't get healing? Are they just not special? I don't want to throw cold water on anyone's healing testimony--we have a precious one ourselves, because our son was healed of his epilepsy. I am only saying that any healing testimony must be given tentatively and sensitively, since 1. not all will experience the same healing 2. physica...

Two lovely North Georgia Water Falls.

A little scarey, isn't it? (giant peach outside Gaffney, SC).

We are now the proud (?) owners of a boat that has questionable provenance, doesn't run, and takes up way too much space in the front yard. Can you say redneck?

400 posts on this blog. I will celebrate with randomness, as I don't have a coherent set of paragraphs in me tonight. I just saw I have four followers on this blog! Thank you folks. Tonight I went to a Sunday School kickoff meeting. The speaker was quite interesting, although he committed a couple of logical fallacies. Our pastor was quoting a writer from Time who said something about Satan being the personification of evil, blah, blah, blah, one figure can't do that, etc. That writer misses the point. Satan is not the personification of evil. And we don't need Satan to achieve a pretty high level of evil as human beings. Satan is a liar and the father of it. I think that's his biggest contribution to it all. Fred Thompson is funny. Or he has good joke writers and is blessed with good timing. The Subaru commercial of the dad talking to his three-year-old getting ready to drive the car is wonderful. Good creativity. I am tired of this August North Georgia heat ...

http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/2010/08/an_open_letter_to_anne_rice.html In Christ means in his body, his church. It’s easy not to want to be in the church, but we really don’t have that option. That doesn’t mean every commitment and minute is busy with church work, and I think that is the problem. People who want to serve the body get bogged down in being here and there and providing this and that and volunteering up and down. Church leadership is often trying get the laity to work harder to “build the church” but who really then gets the credit? Jesus? or the pastor—he now has a larger church and other churches want to offer him a job to come do the same thing. And the people are left looking for another pastor. This is just wrong. . . I see the “being part of the body” is commitment to the people and their struggles. The time commitment should be in terms of spending time with people, not programs; in prayer, not cleaning up after meals (although, yes, I know, a...

Of course, Democrats all over the country are cringing about Obama's statement endorsing the mosque near ground zero. Some observations: 1. His timing is horrible. 2. His actual statement, in context, is not really objectionable. Taken on face value, the words make sense. But that is really not the issue here. 3. Why does he think he has to get involved in local issues??? Didn't he learn his lesson in that Cambridge police issue last summer? He's supposed to be a constitutional lawyer. Does he not realize there are limits on the presidential jurisdiction? Is he so full of himself that there has to be a pronouncement on everything??? Yet, when the gulf coast states are drowning in oil, he does nothing. When illegal immigrants are pouring into the country, he does nothing. Those are local issues he is supposed to deal with. He doesn't seem to know what his job is. 4. He could have stopped with defending freedom of religion. He didn't have to endorse t...

I am to teach on II Cor. 5-7 tomorrow. I am stuck on 5:17, "If any one is in Christ, he/she is a new creation .... " "In Christ" is the operative phrase, of course. Below I have listed various statements about our identity in Christ below(thanks to help from http://www.sw-mins.org/identity.html ), with the disclaimer: These are not really about you. The only reason these statements are true is because of Christ's person and work. I have a strong desire for Christians to understand their identity in Christ, and to be full stewards of the salvation we have received. The Christian experience is a heavenly reality walking around on earth. We have access to so much more than we act upon. BUT--none of those benefits is really for self-use and definitely not for self-aggrandizement and absolutely not because of any merit of our own. And this is as hard for us humans to fully grasp as for us to grasp the riches of His grace in Christ Jesus. All of the followin...

I spent five hours in the dentist's chair today. I had three teeth "rebuilt" essentially, and two old fillings replaced. I am exhausted; I can barely type. Who knew dental work could be so hard?

There is a part of me that does not like confrontation. That part is largely fueled by fear of the consequences, which can often (usually) be messy before they get good, if ever. Because I teach at a state (public) college, I am reluctant to state strong opinions on this blog, because students read it and I don't want my classroom and my relationship with them to be about me or my opinions. They don't pay for that, I don't get paid for it, and it's not professional. However, I am a human being and an American with free speech rights. I can say what I want, with the understanding that some people won't like it and some people will find ways to retaliate against me, even though I would not retaliate against them (for example, reporting on them to the administration of my college) for their communication behavior. I signed the Manhattan Declaration because I agreed with its viewpoints; at the time I did not realize that doing so also meant I was saying I would pay...